Do you inspect drugs when they are returned?

January 2024

ANew Jersey police lieutenant swiped cocaine and fentanyl from the county prosecutor's evidence room — then tried to return the drugs in "substantially different" condition after higher-ups began asking questions about what he was doing, state authorities alleged Tuesday.

Kevin T. Matthew, 47, of Cedar Grove, also allegedly made a "series of cash deposits" at several banks on different days to avoid the financial institutions' federal requirement to report transactions of more than $10,000, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

Two razor blades were found in his office at the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and later tested positive for cocaine, state prosecutors alleged.

Although authorities didn't say exactly what they thought the cop was doing with the drugs, they wrote in the criminal complaint that his actions were "taken with the purpose to benefit himself by personal use, personal financial profit or concealing his misconduct."

"As alleged, the defendant's conduct constitutes a shocking and brazen disregard of the law by a high-ranking officer who was sworn to uphold the law," New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.

The attorney general's probe into the veteran cop was first revealed by The Post last month.

NJ AG Matthew Platkin announced charges against a Bergen County Prosecutor's Office lieutenant who allegedly took drugs from the county's evidence vault. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Matthew was arrested Tuesday, according to the complaint, and charged by the AG with a litany of offenses, including second-degree official misconduct, tampering with public records, structuring financial transactions, drug possession and paraphernalia possession.

A member of the Prosecutor's Office's Special Victims Unit, Matthew allegedly signed out the drugs between October 2022 and November 2023 — even though he didn't have any reason to do so, Platkin said.

Matthew — who has been on leave from the prosecutor's office since Nov. 3 — was also allegedly caught on camera coming and going from the agency's Paramus headquarters toting bags big enough to carry the narcotics he'd signed out.

When he brought the drugs back, they looked much different than when he signed them out, Platkin said. But he tried to pass them off as being in the same condition.

Kevin T. Matthew of the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office allegedly made a "series of cash deposits" on different days to avoid the banks' federal requirement to report transactions of more than $10K. Bergen County Prosecutorâs Office

"Serving in law enforcement is a position of public trust," Platkin said. "If officers illegally break that trust, we will hold them accountable."

Matthew's attorney, Clifton-based Charles Sciarra, called the allegations "weird," and said his client "maintains his complete innocence and that he did nothing criminal whatsoever."

The lawyer said it was "curious" that Matthew was accused of taking the drugs and then returning them. took drugs, then returned them.

"That is not typical behavior for someone being portrayed as a drug user/dealer," Sciarra wrote in a statement. "Also not customary is a master criminal supposedly depositing all the illegally obtained loot in the local bank."